OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND - John Huston on making the film

[Jeff Wilson]

I don't necessarily doubt Brady, though someone here, I think, mentioned a question and answer session with Oja in which she was asked about the supposed meeting to sign some kind of "peace accord" with Paola Welles, and Oja essentially said "Why would I do that, when I already knew what my rights were?" I will say that the story of Paola dying immediately before signing this agreement seems almost like someone wanting to insert an ironic twist in the tale, but maybe it's true. Someone's wrong one way or the other. In any event, it is true that it hardly matters now.

[Glenn Anders]

Jeff: A car crash two days before a settlement does seem a little too ironic, even for a story related to Orson Welles, but I guess it comes down to, if Oja knew her rights, and she had the Will on her side, with the Iranian out of the way, why is the jewel in Welles' last crown, OSOTW, not getting more solid support toward completion and distribution?

Even now, the audience would be considerable, and every film school in the World would want to be a sponsor. There should be so many venues, small sums, $50,000 from here, $50,000 from there. Four million -- eight million -- dollars is not a great deal of money today. These damn little indies made in a cellar in the Bronx pay off their costs and give modest profits to their backers.

There is something we have not taken into account.

Is it what Blunted says? That the picture is all in tiny bits and can't be put together sensibly? Perhaps. But so many trustworthy people, professionals, seem to suggest that it can be put together. Bogdanovich says that it is virtually complete but for one sequence involving an explosion. If there is anything Hollywood does easily and inexpensively, it's explosions. If the subplots were restored to GREED by the use of stills, why not for THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, if it came down to that? If QUEEN KELLY could be assembled, OSOTHW can be glued together, too.

Glenn

[jbrooks]

Bogdanovich says that it is virtually complete but for one sequence involving an explosion.

\

This statement isn't correct unless "complete" means "shot" rather than edited. Bogdanovich told me that only "about an hour" of it has been edited. Stefan Droessler reported at the screenings in New York that the film was fully shot except for a few shots needed "at the drive-in" that could be fairly easily done because they would not need actors. But he also suggested that there was much editing work still needed. I believe that Droessler said that about "50 minutes" of Wind had been edited by Welles, but the rest of it was just various unedited takes cut into the work print. I believe that he also said that -- because of this -- it was difficult to tell how long the finished film would be. [Mr. Droessler has complained about being misquoted on this board before, so I would just note that this is to the best of my recollection. And I would invite any corrections from him.]

Is it what Blunted says? That the picture is all in tiny bits and can't be put together sensibly? Perhaps. But so many trustworthy people, professionals, seem to suggest that it can be put together.

I hope it is true that it can be put together successfully, but I must say that I fear that it may be very difficult. I've come to the conclusion that if there were a Welles masterpiece there that could be easily finished, then it would have been finished by now. The evidence suggests that many powerful (and rich) people have had access to the material and have not felt compelled to see that it was completed. If reports are to be believed, this list includes Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, and Oliver Stone. And certainly Frank Marshall -- who worked on the film and who later became a very successful movie producer -- would seem to have the motivation and the resources to work out all the legal tangles and get the thing done. I fear that the material strikes all of these individuals as problematic. [There is certainly some great stuff in the bits that have been publicly screened so far. But might they not come together into any real cohesive whole?] I hope this fear is unfounded. Certainly Bogdanovich and Kodar and Graver think the film can be succesfully completed. Here's hoping they're right!

[Glenn Anders]

Dear jbrooks: Of course, I meant "shot." Four million would not be required to tweak a complete edit a bit.

Everything you say matches my perceptions.

That's why I said there must be something that we have not taken into account, and why I referred to Blunted's description of the task.

Indeed, let's hope that someone with imagination can see a way through the artistic problems. With such a plan, I think the money would fall into place.

I say again that anyone here who has seen the additional Welles' edit should do a "user comment" on OSOTW at the IMDb. No telling who reads those things. And there has been only ONE comment there (and that on a twenty minutes of footage shown at a film festival in the Northwest), for years now.

That's something which would not cost anyone a penny, nor much more effort than it takes to leave a post here!

Glenn

[jbrooks]

Glenn,

I think the imdb feedback suggestion is a good idea.

As for the $3-4 million said to be needed to complete the film. As I think I've written before, it's my understanding that a good junk of that money would go toward paying off the investors (presumably including the heirs of the Iranian producer and possibly including Beatrice as well). It shouldn't cost anywhere near that much just to edit the film -- even if it turns out that some of it is in "tiny bits."

[smartone]

aint it cool news has information about OSOW
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=17194

Harry,

Sunday afternoon I had the great pleasure of seeing Peter Bogdanovich in Cleveland, Ohio (specifically at the downtown branch of the Cleveland Public Library). He showed various film clips (from NOTORIOUS, RED RIVER, and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, as well as an interview with John Ford) and told stories from his conversations with Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and others. The event lasted a bit over two hours, but the amount of information that was packed into that time was considerable, and of great value to both filmmakers and fans alike. Bogdanovich was an articulate and entertaining speaker and did very convincing impressions of Welles, Hitchcock, Ford, Hawks, Cary Grant and John Wayne. Although he talked about many interesting things, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, the last film directed by Orson Welles, made me sit up a bit straighter in my seat. The film was shot intermittenly between 1970 and1976, much of it in Bogdanovich's home, and has been sitting on a shelf, unedited, in Paris (that's France Harry, not Texas) for almost 30 years. There are many legal entanglements concerning the ownership and rights of the film, which is why it's gone unreleased and practically unknown. On the bright side, Bogdanovich said that there is a company recently involved (intentionally unnamed by Bogdanovich) that is making strides toward sorting out the legal mess, and they are closer now than anyone has ever been to getting the film off the shelf and on its way to an editing room. According to Bogdanovich, 45 minutes of the film is already cut together and "It's a great film." Here's hoping.

-DeVore

[Vidamonte]

Hi,

"Unknown Orson Welles", restored material from Munich Filmmuseum was shown in Helsinki, Finland last weekend and there are still more to come in next 3 weeks.
Stefan Drossler from the museum was there telling about the works.

Here is a list of what I saw in two days:

6 episodes of Sketchbook ( I've seen 3 so far) 1955
The Fountain Of Youth 1956
Portrait Of Gina 1958
Orson Welles' London 1968-1971
Scenes From The Deep 1967-1973
Scenes From Don Quixote 1957-1970
Scenes From The Other Side Of The Wind 1970-1975
Citizen Kane Trailer 1941
The Merchant Of Venice 1938-1973
Orson Welles' Vienna 1969
Orson Welles' Moby Dick 1971
The Spirit Of Charles Lindbergh 1984
Return To Glennascaul 1951
Orson Welles' The Golden Honeymoon 1970
Orson Welles' Magic Show 1976-1985

and extra "fun" : 3 clips from Dean Martin Show ( scenes from "Moby Dick", "Merchant Of Venice" and " Falstaff")and beer and whisky commercials

Still to come:

Filming The Trial by Orson Welles 1981
Orson Welles On Stage in Dublin 1960
Filming Othello 1978
Around The World With Orson Welles 1955
Orson Welles In The Land Of Don Quixote 2000
Orson Welles' The Dreamers 1980-1982

and of course all his movies.

There was a nice clip before they showed "Scenes From Other Side Of The Wind". It was filmed in late sixties in a terrace of a hotel in Madrid, where OW was telling to a group of very square looking american tourists about his next movie about a macho film director, who had so much hair in his chest that you can't see his face. Every day actors improvise scenes " it shouldn't take more than 8 weeks!" says Welles.

When Drossler told about the habit of Welles to film his questions later ( often many years later) in his film essays,
he also told that for example in "Orson Welles Show" in Burt Reynold's interview there isn't two sentences in same order than in raw material.

I asked him is any of this material coming out on DVD in "near future" and he said he has talked with Criterion and they have said no for time being, but didn't seem to be totally hopeless.

There is book "The Unknown Orson Welles" by this Stefan Drossler. Lots of articles and info about all restored material, long interview of Oja Kodar, Bill Krohn's interview of Welles from 1982 etc.

[Jed Leland]

I was fortunate enough to catch Droessler's presentation at The Egyptian. It was very entertaining and I was surprised by the amount of information he had (especially on Other Side of The Wind). I think he showed about 20 minutes of that film. I missed the opportunity to get his book. If someone knows where I could find it please post a message.

[Christopher]

Jed, If the book you mean is "The Unknown Orson Welles" (published by the Munich Filmmuseum and edited by Stefan Drossler), it's still on sale at the Film Forum. Maybe you can order it through their web site, or you can certainly send an e-mail at their site, asking how you can get a copy: http://filmforum.com The Orson Welles Festival runs until April 15th, so I assume the book will be available for sale until then, at least.

[colwood]

Haven't checked it out myself, but I believe Stefan said it could be ordered through Amazon.de (Amazon's german site).

[Jed Leland]

Haven't checked it out myself, but I believe Stefan said it could be ordered through Amazon.de (Amazon's german site).

That might be so, but I can't read German. And I did go to the Film Forum Site. I believe the only way you could purchase the book was at the event.

[Vidamonte]

Somebody wrote here that Iranian co-producer of TOSOTW is dead, but Stefan Drossler, the guy from Munich Filmmuseum said in an interview in Helsinki few weeks ago when asked if the problem of getting TOSOTW finished would end if Iranian producer died, he answered that he has a son who is rumored to be even more greedy.

I have one extra book of "The Unknown Orson Welles" that was sold during the screenings. I could trade it for something.

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Just like i keep checking the imdb pages of people like David Lynch, Marlon Brando, Terry Gilliam for signs of new activity, i keep checking back here, each time dreaming someone will have written a new topic in capital letters "OSOTW WILL BE FINISHED!"

My fingers are still crossed.

PS, there was a screening of Touch of Evil at the Art Gallery of NSW here in Oz, which i attended. Was lots of fun watching it again - and it looked superb on the big screen. Don't know what the audience made of it - lots of people around me were laughing in all the right places (at Uncle Joe, at Dennis Weaver, at some of Orson's lines). There were a few gasps from the crowd when we beheld Janet Leigh in all her glory in the hotel room, and many chuckles of acknowledgement at Dietrich's famous line "He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people." The crowd seemed to love Dietrich's scenes, as do we all i'm sure.

[marcoshark]

Interesting article about tOSoTW at "Aint it cool news"

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=18327

[Sir Bygber Brown]

That's a pretty fun little eye-witness account. Incredible that anyone could have been that close to THE Orson Welles while he was alive, let alone be glimpsed somewhere in his unfinished film.